Street Smarts

On the large plasma screen at Cafe Manhattan, NESN fishing star Charlie Moore is about to land a salmon that must be well over 10 pounds. "God, that's a beauty," the closed-captioning repeats over and over as Moore nets the fish. "If they'd change the channel, we could be watching Oprah," a woman sitting next to me says.

Below the TV, four guys set up turntables and a PA; behind me, students from Springfield's Mansfield Beauty School put the finishing touches on the contestants participating in the evening's model search. Anisa Graham glides through the room in a white double-breasted coat, making sure everything is in place for the event -- a launch party for the latest issue of her baby, Inda Streetz Magazine.

After a few false starts with the PA, Anisa introduces the evening's first performer: Arhmah Ogund'e, an R&B artist from Salisbury, Maryland. Inda Streetz ran a feature on Ogund'e in 2007, and tonight he's repaying the favor by making the long drive north to sing two songs. In his voice are hints of Stevie Wonder's reverb and inflection, along with more than a shade of early-eighties Kool & the Gang. He bobs and weaves as he sings, tracing his vibrato with his shoulders, and soon the crowd follows suit.

After a break it's on to the model search. The prize is $300 and a three-page layout in the next issue of Inda Streetz. It's a small field -- but, in addition to contestants from Springfield and Holyoke, they've come from as far as New Haven and even Woodbridge, Virginia.

In the first two rounds the contestants walk an L around the bar, hitting poses and steering with head-snaps and icy stares. In round 3, though, it's no longer about working the room. Each model has to answer a question. Contestant #8, a girl from Boston whose name I never catch, stands before the judges.

The question comes: "What makes a great leader?"

She thinks out loud, almost starts to meander, and then she kills it: "A great leader is someone you can relate to as well as look up to."

Photo by Greg Saulmon. | Click to enlarge.

Outside a light snow is starting to fall, flakes set aflame by the light-up sax that decorates the lamp post on Bridge Street. "Listen to me," a guy in a luxury SUV is yelling into his cell phone. "I'm going to buy two bags from you. TWO BAGS."

With any luck, Contestant #8 is inside, shaking off the nerves of competition and realizing that, no matter how she fares tonight, she has a brilliant career ahead of her.